DANUŠE TARKOWSKÁ | HOW TO FIND A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK – ULTRA-TRACE ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT
PLANT SIGNALLING MOLECULES
Abstract
Since 1665, when the British polymath Robert Hooke (1635-1703) first constructed a microscope, we have known that the basic structural and functional unit of living matter is the cell. According to the still valid theory introduced in 1838 (M.J. Schleiden and T. Schwann), every organism is made up of one or more cells that exchange matter and energy with the environment and come from other (mother) cells from which they receive genetic information. For cell-cell communication, these cells use chemical compounds, so-called chemical messengers, which are divided into different groups according to their structure. Each cell synthesizes chemical messengers de novo and each group of them in different amounts. Some are produced and function in cells only at concentrations < 1 ppm (1 µg/g). This is a concentration area referred to as the trace, or ultra-trace, and the analysis of such substances is then called trace, or ultra-trace. In order to understand the significance, range, and minute details of the intercellular communication network as deeply as possible, we need to find the tools to detect these trace chemical messengers as their non-negligible functional unit.